When Disney bought Lucasfilm, there were aftershocks felt throughout the Star Wars fandom. One of the biggest was when Disney declared the Expanded Star Wars Universe material, all the books and games written between the time of the original films and the prequels, to be non-canon. Naming everything that came under that banner as Star Wars Legends. All those stories and characters, beloved by many fans and an important part of fans lives between the drought of time between the movie trilogies were stripped away. Now one of the most iconic of those characters is back, back in a big way.

Plucked from the trilogy by Timothy Zahn, Admiral Thrawn was the tactical mastermind that gathered the remaining Imperial forces and tried to rebuild the empire. Word from Star Wars Celebration 2016 in London is that Thrawn is now back in the warming embrace of Star Wars Canon and will be appearing in Star Wars Rebels season 3 as well as getting his own new book.

Lars Mikkelsen (House of Cards), the older brother of Mads Mikkelsen who will appear in Rogue One, will voice the popular character – and he’s getting a new book too. Timothy Zahn, Thrawn’s creator will be writing that book due out in 2017 and sent a tapped message to the celebration thanking Star Wars Rebels director Dave Filoni for the “incredible honor” of adapting Thrawn into the show.

Filoni had this to say about the character:

You couldn’t have grown up as a Star Wars fan without encountering Admiral Thrwan… It was significant. I have to say it was always on a lot of our minds.

We have a lot of like-minded things we wanted to see in Star Wars and one of them was always Thrawn. We strategise on when best to bring him in, but it was important to do it right.

Here’s the trailer shown at the celebration, watch it quick before the lawyers get a hold of it.

Damn, that is some good news that will help a lot of long-suffering fans back into the fold.